Amazon streaming tip: Mark Pellington/Alex Ross Perry's poetic and moving NOSTALGIA

Yes, Mark Pellington (shown at left, director) and Alex Ross Perry (shown below, co-writer) do seem an odd combination, but in this particular case the combo works better for TrustMovies than either writer/director's work has managed to do individually.

Granted the title NOSTALGIA is a tad overused (95 exact title matches on the IMDB!), but it does indeed apply to this movie, whose themes are grief, loss, and the importance in one's life of both objects and memories. The film begins with a lovely scene in a diner between a waitress and a quiet, contemplative man (played

quite memorably by John Ortiz) who is an insurance assessor. We then move to one of his clients (Bruce Dern) and then to another (Ellen Burstyn), with various family members and friends involved, and from there to a dealer in sports memorabilia (Jon Hamm, shown in bottom photo) and then to this man's sister (Catherine Keener), her family and a sudden bereavement.

That's it, so far as plot goes. What holds the movie together and makes it often so beautiful and moving is its combination of themes, visuals and dialog, all brought to thoughtful, specific life by an array of first-rate actors, led by Mr. Ortiz who is a good here as I've yet seen him. He brings the kind of grace and understanding to the proceedings that help lead us into this unusual, artful look at the "whole" (or maybe the "hole") of our lives.

Criticism has been leveled at the film due to its supposed repetitiveness, yet each episode has its own special tale brought to life by top-notch performers. Supporting roles are cast with such a roster of talent -- Beth Grant to James Le Gros -- that each small performance rings  true and special.

The question of what the objects we collect during our lives mean -- to us, as well as to others -- is given a most interesting workout here, and the result is worth experiencing and thinking about.

Yes, the movie is slow-paced (and the final section goes on a bit too long), but it is so beautifully filmed that some of you, at least, will be pleased to have viewed it. Do give this film a try. Nostalgia is streaming now via Amazon, where Prime members can see it free of charge.

Mark Pellington's best film? THE LAST WORD might just qualify, thanks to Shirley MacLaine

If you don't already consider Shirley MacLaine to be a national treasure, entertainment-wise, you certainly will after viewing her latest film, THE LAST WORD. This creditable attempt at deepening the usual feel-good/senior-citizen movie goes places you may not expect and does so with enough intelligence and flair to make the movie a trip worth taking. In it, Ms MacLaine plays Harriet, a difficult, demanding old woman who's been forced out of the business she started and brought to huge success and is now just waiting, well, to die.

A control freak of long-standing, when she gets the idea to have her obituary written prior to her death (so she has control of that "last word," as it were), she hires the young obit writer for the local paper, Anna (played by Amanda Seyfried, below) to do the job. As directed by Mark Pellington (shown at left) and written by Stuart Ross Fink, the movie is often very funny, at times surprisingly resonant and moving, and almost always an enjoyment to view. If it doesn't reach genre greatness, it is at least willing to tackle more than what the usual feel-good film tends to offer us.

The last time TrustMovies saw Mr. Pellington's work, that was the 52-minute music video called Lone. I wasn't overly impressed, though I have enjoyed other of his films. The Last Word strikes me as perhaps the best overall work he's done in quite some time. Beautifully cast, with each performer nailing his or her role quite well, and written with enough pizzazz to keeps us interested and smiling, the movie is visually smart, as well. Note the moment that occurs during a round-up of various characters who have known Harriet, all of whom hate her guts. During the words of one particularly angry, hurtful fellow, the camera pans down just a few inches below his chin and -- suddenly and with such subtlety -- the moment becomes twice as funny.

Films like The Last Word that deal with seniors, end-of-life, and what's-it-all-about seem to need to be feel-good by their very nature. So when one comes along that's at least willing to explore a little more deeply, this is worth savoring. The movie does not turn our heroine into any kind of a saint. She stays pretty much a curmudgeon throughout, but as we learn more about her (and MacLaine, above, helps us understand how and why she's the way she is), we can appreciate Harriet and enjoy her even more.

We meet her ex-husband (a nice job by Philip Baker Hall) and eventually see her reunited with  her estranged daughter (a lovely, rich scene anchored by Anne Heche, above), and along the way, the movie raises worthwhile questions about what it takes to be a good mother, a good friend, and a real professional. And the answers aren't necessarily the easy ones. When (and how much) to control, and when to let go are explored, too. And if a couple of side plots are handled a little too easily, well, this is what blocks the movie from achieving a higher level.

Still what's there is plenty good and plenty enjoyable. In the supporting cast are a number of fine actors like Thomas Sadoski (above), Tom Everett Scott and Joel Murray. And MacLaine is a funny, nasty, total delight. There's life in the old girl -- and in the senior-citizen movie -- yet!

From Bleecker Street Media and running 108 minutes, The Last Word opens here in South Florida tomorrow, March 17, in Boca Raton at the Cinemark Palace 20, the Living Room Theaters and the Regal Shadowood 16; in Palm Beach Gardens at Cobb Theaters Downtown 16; and at the Movies of Delray.  Elsewhere? Of course. Click here and then scroll down to FIND THEATERS & TICKETS.

What's Mark Pellington been working on of late? A long music video titled LONE for Chelsea Wolfe

As TrustMovies has mentioned previously, one of the odd surprises/gifts of this non-paying job is receiving unsolicited emails asking yours truly to watch a new film. Usually, however, these don't come from folk as well-known in the industry as Mark Pellington, the film and TV director (27 credits), producer (11 credit) and occasional writer (2 credits), whose best-known work is probably Arlington Road or The Mothman Prophecies, but whose favorite film of mine is Henry Poole Is Here. Mr. Pellington asked if I might take a look at his new and nearly-hour-long film -- LONE -- that he'd made around the musical work of singer/songwriter Chelsea Wolfe. (Not paying attention to new music or musicians at all closely, I have to say that I had never heard of Ms Wolfe. Evidently plenty of people have, and I've now learned that she maintains quite a following.)

Also, this request from Mr. Pellington (shown at left) came by way of the recommen-dation of another filmmaker, Jeremiah Kipp, whose short work I'd covered, some of which I'd enjoyed immensely, a year or so back. All this is by way of explaining why I'm devoting one of today's posts to--what is for me--an unusual experience. Lone is basically a 52-minute music video. That's kind of long for a music video, right? Most of them, I think, are visual accompani-ments to a single song and tend to last maybe five minutes.

Music videos are also, for the most part, plotless, often relying on crazy themes, snazzy editing and a dizzying pace to pull you in and hold you fast. This is difficult to do when your video lasts nearly an hour. Approaching this work as the novice that I am (certainly regarding Ms Wolfe and her life and music), I have to say that Pellington makes a very game attempt to keep us enticed and watching.

Lone is a riot of images and sounds, a kind of stream-of-consciousness video, with an occasional word or phrase employed, taking us from present to past and back again, while serving up everything from monsters and Americana to horror, wild horses, provocative poses, death, birth, religion, a nod to Donnie Darko and... guns! I am certain that this all means one hell of a lot to Ms Wolfe (I am guessing that it is somehow her "story") but how much it might mean to the general public I'm not so sure. Certainly, her fans will eat it up, and I should think it will make fabulous fodder for her shrink (if it hasn't already).

At times the images may call to mind the work of David Lynch, and around the 17-minute point the mood seems to change a bit, but then, no, we go back to pretty the same dirge-like rhythm and music, while the visuals move on to more major destruction -- atomic bombs (and Bambi!). The images and Pellington's use of them seem to be building toward some major conflict and possible resolution between... a daughter and her dad? Or mom? Or both.

The movie is full of symbols, of course (that's what music videos have longed seemed to prefer in order to get their points across in the necessary five-minute time period): bloody sheets, the dead mother, the angry or stoic dad (are we being told of some kind of abuse, perhaps?). Choice phrases -- "When your blood races, my blood races" "I am not afraid of you"  "I'm not afraid to remember" "Freedom in life, freedom in love, freedom in nature, freedom in death" -- are repeated over and over, as are the music and many of the visuals. In a film like this, however, to accuse the finished work of repetition is to miss the point: Lone is mostly about repetition.

In the last five minutes, some resolution -- acceptance? -- maybe occurs. I believe I read somewhere, after I watched the film, that Ms Wolfe used five different songs during the course of the film. But to my aging ears, it all sounded like one long, same song. Still, some of the images -- white dresses, red blood, white sheets, and our heroine in her black attire -- do prove striking. Overall, though, this is heavy-going. There's a reason that music videos tend to be short.

So how do you actually get to view Lone? You can find the free video preview here. To view the entire 52-minute movie, however, I think you either have to plunk down $20 to purchase the film on a 4 gigabyte USB drive (click here), or pay $35 for the Lone bundle, which includes the film on USB Drive, a folded 11x17" poster and your choice of one of the two different tee shirts on display (click here for the bundle).

I would imagine that something such as this might better be streamed as a rental, costing less money and reaching more fans. But what the hell, I guess Ms Wolfe's marketing team knows best....